{"id":148733401,"date":"2024-09-25T12:30:12","date_gmt":"2024-09-25T12:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=148733401"},"modified":"2024-09-25T12:30:12","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T12:30:12","slug":"what-makes-this-song-rip-elephant-gym-head-and-body","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=148733401","title":{"rendered":"What Makes This Song Rip: Elephant Gym &amp; &quot;Head&quot; and &quot;Body&quot;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8220;I drank every day and people were crazy&#8230;BBQ! BBQ! BBQ!&#8221; &#8211; Elephant Gym, in response to the question &#8220;how was Austin&#8221;<\/h2><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last National Poetry Month, we <a href=\"https:\/\/shipwreckedsailor.substack.com\/p\/the-poem-i-recommend-if-you-dont\">close read<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/shipwreckedsailor.substack.com\/p\/lets-close-read-another-poem?utm_source=publication-search\">some poems<\/a>. Recently, I\u2019ve been <a href=\"https:\/\/shipwreckedsailor.substack.com\/p\/albums-i-loved-in-high-school-blink?utm_source=publication-search\">looking<\/a> at <a href=\"https:\/\/shipwreckedsailor.substack.com\/p\/albums-i-loved-in-high-school-nofx?utm_source=publication-search\">albums<\/a> I <a href=\"https:\/\/shipwreckedsailor.substack.com\/p\/albums-i-loved-in-high-school-mxpx?utm_source=publication-search\">loved in high school<\/a>. The most recent crop of those turned a little <a href=\"https:\/\/shipwreckedsailor.substack.com\/p\/albums-i-loved-in-high-school-relient?utm_source=publication-search\">shame-filled<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/shipwreckedsailor.substack.com\/p\/albums-i-loved-in-high-school-slick?utm_source=publication-search\">maybe mean<\/a>. So I thought it might be nice to close-read some songs I really like. Talk about <em>why<\/em> I think they are cool.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Breaking this into sub-categories\u2014it worked at <em>Cracked<\/em>, it works for <em>The Line Break<\/em>, and it\u2019s a good way to organize thoughts. Most chord progressions are four chords, so we\u2019ll do four categories: general vibe, structure, chords, and moments of sublime. Those all make sense at face value right? Thanks, readers, I knew I could trust you.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/shipwreckedsailor.substack.com\/p\/what-makes-this-song-rip-chon-and\">First up was Chon<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/shipwreckedsailor.substack.com\/p\/what-makes-this-song-rip-polyphia\">Then we did Polyphia<\/a>. Now let\u2019s do Elephant Gym. <\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Elephant Gym on Audiotree Live (Full Session)\" width=\"790\" height=\"444\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HW367HtrXE0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>General Vibe <\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yeah, I went with the live version\u2014mostly because they\u2019re a <em>great<\/em> live band and this show at Audiotree rocks. These songs, like a great many of Elephant Gym songs, make me feel like I\u2019m walking at night in a city. Thinking real hard about something. I\u2019m leaving a night class when I listen to Elephant Gym\u2014one of the good ones, like a writing workshop or something. There\u2019s also this vibe with Elephant Gym\u2014Brendan said \u201cit feels like they have unlimited creativity\u201d or something to that affect once. That\u2019s correct. They groove, they play technical, they get dynamic, they go wherever they feel like going. This is a band who knows how to make a pop song but would find it boring, a band who wants to rock hard but thinks playing too loud is obnoxious, a band who is classically trained but hates practice. They just kinda do whatever cool shit they think of, and what comes out is incredibly interesting and fun. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Structure <\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHead\u201d is a bass etude that leads into \u201cBody\u201d (it\u2019s like this way on the album, too). While KT is an incredibly skilled bass player who can tap and slap\/pop and walk and play classical, she\u2019s also a tasteful songwriter. Notice there aren\u2019t any of those fancy techniques in \u201cHead.\u201d When \u201cBody\u201d starts, she starts tapping. Sure. But that\u2019s in service of the \u201cchaos notes falling from the sky\u201d feeling of the A part. It\u2019s Tell\u2019s piano holding the song down. Playing chords in the A part. Then playing the drone note when we get to the B section. Then back to chords while KT is playing countermelody (to Tell\u2019s right hand) in the C part. They go back to the A part to tie it all together, and we\u2019ve got a nice little three-act structure for this song. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Chords<\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unlike \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/shipwreckedsailor.substack.com\/p\/what-makes-this-song-rip-chon-and\">Waterslide<\/a>\u201d and \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/shipwreckedsailor.substack.com\/p\/what-makes-this-song-rip-polyphia\">Playing God<\/a>,\u201d I don\u2019t have the faintest idea how to play these songs (\u201cHead\u201d is in the key of A, that\u2019s all I got). Sitting down and trying to figure out at least some of this is a goal, and I think I\u2019m a decent enough piano player to pick it out. Not a good enough piano for that to be an easy task, though. <\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/d98fa90a-89cc-4e37-9211-463805799579_800x533.jpeg\" alt=\"File:Kimball piano (2014-04-12 10.09.54 @pxhere 541901).jpg\"\/><\/figure><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So what I can comment on is this: a lot of these chords are super close together, and the bass is often playing in a similar register as the piano. That contributes to the \u201cnotes falling out of the sky\u201d feeling, as do the dissonant chords (I\u2019m guessing a few minor 9ths in there, and some sustained four chords\u2014both chords where it\u2019s easy to play very close notes on a piano). These songs are controlled, tightly mapped chaos, and the way these instruments interact with each other takes up an impressive amount of sonic space.  <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Moments of Sublime<\/strong><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHead\u201d is the exact right length of time. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The not quite-scale-in-thirds walkdown that leads right to the downbeat of \u201cBody.\u201d<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first piano chords of \u201cBody.\u201d<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chia-Chin\u2019s decision to stay off the drums from 12:08-12:19, then have sporadic offbeat snare for the rest of that riff. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chia-Chin\u2019s fills. He might have my favorite fills of anybody playing drums right now, I\u2019m not sure. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The drone note part feels so big and building and makes my chest swell but it never feels corny or Evangelical or otherwise manipulative. Like most stuff Elephant Gym does, to me, it reads like simply a cool thing to do as a band. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whatever dissonant departure from the root note KT makes at 14:25. I think it\u2019s an F# while Tell is playing a chord based around a G? Again, I don\u2019t know how to play this song. But she goes lower than he does, and the half-step dissonance somehow <em>works<\/em> in a way that makes me close my eyes every time I hear it. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The halftime breakdown at 14:54.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The return to the A riff at the end has such a feeling of return to it, like how every TV show episode is supposed to end with the characters \u201creturning home having changed\u201d\u2014that\u2019s how that riff feels. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>WRAP IT UP B<\/strong><\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/91df8e5f-6201-4ece-b7b4-345aa7da1a35_686x600.jpeg\" alt=\"File:Guillermo D\u00edaz.jpg\"\/><\/figure><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This video was my first introduction to Elephant Gym. I liked them right away, but these two songs <em>cemented <\/em>me liking this band. These two songs are the kind of songs that make me go \u201cI wanna do that too!\u201d Yeah, sometimes I see a band and get like a five-year-old when a different five-year-old discovers the bubble wand you thought you hid better in your garage. We need more three-piece piano-drum-bass combos dedicated to doing weird shit like this. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This song <em>rips<\/em>. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sorry you got an email, <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chris<\/p><div class=\"subscription-widget-wrap-editor\" data-attrs=\"{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/shipwreckedsailor.substack.com\/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}\" data-component-name=\"SubscribeWidgetToDOM\"><div class=\"subscription-widget show-subscribe\"><div class=\"preamble\"><p class=\"cta-caption\">Thanks for reading shipwrecked sailor! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.<\/p><\/div><form class=\"subscription-widget-subscribe\"><input type=\"email\" class=\"email-input\" name=\"email\" placeholder=\"Type your email\u2026\" tabindex=\"-1\"\/><input type=\"submit\" class=\"button primary\" value=\"Subscribe\"\/><div class=\"fake-input-wrapper\"><div class=\"fake-input\"\/><div class=\"fake-button\"\/><\/div><\/form><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I drank every day and people were crazy&#8230;BBQ! BBQ! BBQ!&#8221; &#8211; Elephant Gym, in response to the question &#8220;how was Austin&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-148733401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148733401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=148733401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148733401\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=148733401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=148733401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=148733401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}